iPad 2 goes 3D and glasses-free thanks to front-facing camera

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With 3D HDTVs rising in popularity, many people are intrigued about owning a 3D device, but some just don’t want to pay the extra $150 per pair of 3D glasses. Owners of the iPad 2, however, may be happy to know that glasses-free 3D capabilities may be on the way for the new tablet, thanks to the addition of a front-facing camera in the second generation iPad.

Researchers in France’s Engineering Human-Computer Interaction Research Group have developed a hack for the iPad 2 that they call Head-Coupling Perspective, which can track the position and movements of a person’s head in 3D. But the 3D image the user sees doesn’t actually come out of the screen like most 3D images seem to do. Instead, it stretches back into the screen.

Working in a similar way to the Nintendo 3DS, but reminding us more of the DS game Rittai Kakushi e Attakoreda, it’s basically a 3D representation on a 2D screen that follows you as you move. According to the EHCI site, researches used “off-axis projection to adapt the perspective of the 3D scene.”

The EHCI research group primarily works with the software aspects of Human-Computer Interaction. The groups mission is to define new concepts, models, and software tools in order to design, implement, and evaluate interaction techniques that are “effective, usable, and enjoyable.”

Though it’s only a tech demo right now, it could easily become a full-fledged iOS app in the future. It works with any Apple device with a front-facing camera, which means it also works with the iPhone 4.

Speak Your Mind

Jennifer, what are you smoking over there? The glasses-less 3D effect produced on the 3DS comes from a parallax barrier in from of the LCD. The proposed application could render 2D images with correct perspective rendering, but they would not look 3D. Do you understand what is being talked about here?

Not very practical for gaming or GUI. Does have some nice niche applications like CAD preview

richard

The main problem with 3D is that it is an artificial depth perception. Basically, my eyes have to be focussed at a constant point and by manipulating parallax in the image to get a 3D effect. True 3D would track where the eyes are focussed and adjust the image accordingly – putting focus where the eyes are focussed.